Shipping, mailing, or posting (collectively referred to herein as shipping) of various items, such as letters and parcels, using services such as the United States Postal Service (USPS), the United Parcel Service (UPS), and Federal Express (FedEx) has been widely used by both individuals and businesses for years. Such shipping often requires the shipper to obtain a suitable shipping container, such as an envelope, flat, box, etc. (collectively referred to herein as containers), place the objects to be shipped in the container, weigh the resulting item to be shipped, obtain and apply suitable postage or other form of payment for shipping services, and prepare a shipping label or other technique for applying delivery address information before the shipping item is introduced into the shipping stream.
The foregoing shipping process can prove problematic for many shippers, particularly individuals who do not regularly engage in shipping items. For example, an individual wishing to ship items may not have a postage meter, online postage metering account, or other suitable means by which to conveniently obtain and apply suitable postage or other form of payment for shipping services. The preparation of a shipping label, even when an individual has access to suitable printing equipment and label stock, can be quite inconvenient. For example, an individual may be required to remove paper stock from a printer, insert suitable label stock, launch a shipping label application on a computer, and input delivery address information all to print a single shipping label. Moreover, individuals wishing to ship items often find themselves in the situation of having no ready stock of containers.
Efforts have been made to simplify shipping of items. For example, the USPS has introduced various flat rate shipping containers (e.g., envelope and small, medium, and large boxes), each having a flat shipping rate associated with the use thereof such that any object(s) fitting within such a container may be shipped from and to anywhere within the United States for the corresponding flat shipping rate. Such flat rate shipping has simplified shipping for many individuals by eliminating the need for scales, rating tables, etc. The shippers still must, however, purchase postage in the amount of the flat shipping rate and apply that postage to the flat rate shipping containers prior to their use. Accordingly, many shippers wishing to take advantage of the simplified flat rate shipping must still visit a post office or other service provider in order to purchase the requisite postage.
In an effort to make the use of such flat rate shipping containers still more convenient to the shipper, the USPS provides the aforementioned flat rate shipping containers to shippers free of charge. Moreover, the USPS even provides delivery of the flat rate shipping containers to shippers upon request. Shippers must still, however, continue to endure the inconvenience of preparing and applying a shipping label or otherwise applying delivery address information to the containers. Moreover, shippers continue to find themselves in the position of not having the appropriately sized, unused containers on hand when a particular object is to be shipped.
It should be appreciated that the reuse of the aforementioned flat rate shipping containers and other containers in wide use today is problematic. For example, many such containers are destroyed or otherwise rendered unusable as a shipping container when opened by a recipient. For example, the small flat rate shipping container provided by the USPS uses a “tear-to-open” sealed flap configuration that renders the container impractical for reuse as a shipping container. Moreover, the application of delivery address information (e.g., a shipping label), proof of payment for shipping services (e.g., postage indicia), and shipping information (e.g., routing information, tracking number, special handling instructions, etc.) to the container present difficulties to their reuse. For example, such information generally must be removed, possibly destroying the container or otherwise rendering it unusable as a shipping container, or obfuscated in order not to cause confusion in the processing of the item during shipping. It is often difficult to remove or obfuscate all such information and/or completely enough so as to avoid confusion or other undesired results.